Unto the last 24 hours!

We are now about to enter the final stretch: the last 24 hours of our campaign. It was a great ride and we want to THANK YOU for taking us along! We’ve received more than 17k comments, 3k personal messages, 5k likes, and most importantly tons and tons of positive support. You are the ones who made this game possible!

It now looks like we are going to burst through the £1m (about US$1.67m) stretch goal and who knows how far we can get before the last whistle. For this last surge we wanted to introduce one last stretch goal. We wanted to add something that makes the game better for all players and something that makes the game special. Our £700k pounds stretch goal was ‘Performance Capture’ and we decided to build on this.

A performance capture is as good as the actors that use it, and in fact many people have already asked which actors might get involved – talent like Sean Bean, Brian Blessed and even John Cleese are often mentioned. We love Sean Bean, especially because of his less known indie medieval movie Black Death, and Brian Blessed was in Dan’s mind when he was writing one of the nobles for the game. Obviously we share these sentiments with our supporters!

We already started talking to different talent agencies and we have a rough idea how much we would need to hire our favorite actors. So, we’re confident that IF we reach our next stretch goal (£1.2m), we will be able to hire at least one high profile actor or actress. In the game, you’d be able to not only hear their voice, but also see their likeness and their acting abilities (thanks to performance capture).

Please note we can’t guarantee locking in specific stars because a lot of variables are at play here, but we won’t short change our fans because it seems we have shared tastes. You can trust we’ll get awesome talent for the game that will take the whole experience up another level!

Comments

My main comment on the voices is that you mentioned probably going for more contemporary language, but I personally like the idea of using language that more reflects the period. I would love to hear even more accurate syntax, and not the more modern Shakespearean style (I assume this is set well before his time), but that would probably be too hard to understand. The main issue is making it sound natural, which I think is totally doable using the writing that I've heard so far, as long as your actors are good.

I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily against well-known acting talent (I thought it worked well for Broken Age), but I agree, as everyone does, that quality is the main thing, and also that working on the depth and scope of the game is more important than having famous actors. That said, the voices I've heard so far definitely need work, though they're great for so early in the project.

Proud to finally be a backer, sold an old laptop to get the funds as I am a little broke. Congrats to Warhorse they have done an amazing job thus far and I am really excited for future updates. You guys are such a humble studio and the fan support is crazy so I can only imagine how the final product will look.

I too feel as though celebrity acting may be overrated. I believe the more diverse the range of voices, the more immersion you will get as opposed to hiring a few talented voices. If no two voices were the same, that would truly add to the uniqueness of each character. Stealing, talking, questing, killing, all these interactions you could have with these characters would feel so much more real, especially if these NPCs all have names, homes, relatives and the ability to die. They would feel less like pawns for some cause, and more like people. Developing unique friendships and rivalries with these NPCs while playing through the story would be memorable and push replay value even further. Those are just my thoughts though :)

Oh, here's an idea: How about looking for a good voice among your backers?! Not me, naturally, (unless you need a foreign jester with speech impediment), but of the 35k+ backers there MUST be trained actors, if lesser known.

Fellas, since my first pledge my expectations are growing and I am wholeheartedly with you.
I must echo the concerns of other down here re actors: The voices of the Prague English-speaking expats were just fine! I for one support realism of the raw kind and I say the characters must be fluent, but nothing like actors. Well, I will probably not recognize Sean Bean's voice, if a noble speaks with it. Not unlless he calls out "Frodo!" I would recognize John Cleese, who was suggested in the Forum already. But for me, it will be a spoiler. I am sure a face of an actor, who appeared in "dungeons and (not) dragons"-like movies, used on the cover or at least in the commercials will boost your marketing. You also need not consider my voice (voice of a backer) so much, because you are no longer selling the game to me - I pledged, you are selling it to non-backers now. But please consider carefully, how much work could be done for the game's refinement for the big name's fee. Summary: The game itself does not need reknowned voices, it needs fluent voices that are at least 80% understandable to an advanced-level non-native English speaker. Just hearing the voice while reading the subtitles needs even less of a refinement. And if I was to voice my preference as to what you should rather spend the money on, I'd vote for refining the realism. This claim sold the game to me and I put it on the first place, even before patriotic Czech language support, which would be my second-best pick.

I'm going to throw in with the "no celebrity actors" crowd. If I got my wish, I'd please ask that you instead spend the funds on language support or at least more varied voices, to avoid the "Oblivion" effect where just one guy voices 120 NPCs in the game.

I do like the idea about actors but I think i might be better to invest the money to get the game in 5 or more languages of the backers who were involved. I love English but I think many would have more fun in game in the language which is natural for them. I don´t mean to make it in motion capture but just make the voices. Not sure if many would agree with me but I feel many backers would like to have their language in the game :-)

Please don't waste money on a well known voice. There are less known voice actors who would cost significantly less. Use the money you'll save to pay your dev team, so they can spend those extra hours working out the bugs.

Superbacker

I personally don't think "Stars" are worth it, you can find many talented voice actors who are "unknown" for a much cheaper price. A star or two is great if there is a specific character you believe that they would potray very well. However, don't feel obligated to pay for one if you don't have too.

If you have to hire a celebrity voice actor please hire one who who does not look down on voice acting gigs and actually does job he is paid for. Money paid for some tinseltown bigshot to chew scenery is money wasted. Some actors actually have experience in working as voiceactor and have actual work ethics, if I were to throw money down this particualr well I would hire Mark Hamill, you can all see his credits regarding videogames in wikipedia.

Please no Donald Sutherland, talk about an overused voice. Seriously, well known voices are just as likely to detract from the game (except for Kevin Conroy...). Just go for the quality of the voices... not the notoriety of the actor, please.

But I'm still happy with how things are going so... you got me to upgrade again. I still can't afford a sword but I'm now paying to be a petty noble.

I could care less about star voices-overs. It's a waste of money. Use the money wisely. For example, I don't go to animated films because Will Smith's voice is in the show. Use the money on those poor horse animations or make the combat even better.

I share the same sentiments that many here are sharing. Don't waste money on big budget actors / actresses. Invest more on content. I would love for a 30 hr campaign with 50+ hrs of side quests. Music score is also a big + for me. Game immersion can be killed with crap music and with the setting of KC:D immersion is a must. Modding. Maybe I overlooked but also consider letting the community tinker with the game after release.

Hi! I just backed you guys because I truly believe you will create an amazing RPG, and if you hit even half of what you've promised us I will continue to buy every single product Warhorse Studios will ever produce, til the day I die!

Please don't implement any Dog companion stuff, and instead use additional funds to get some good performance capture actors for the game instead. Think more Patrick Steward (Picard from Star Trek) than John Cleese (Faulty Towers). Just sharing my opinion.

You talked some about the game's historical basis, and a bit about the what the larger story will be. Obviously, the setting is very real, but I'm curious as to how much the game's story will follow or draw from actual historical events. Could you talk more about that in one of the updates?

Brian Blessed is the name! hail to the king!
John Cleese is awesome as well but i would love to have the best possible game and not waste money on known voices. sure it could interest some folks but Delivarance should defend itself with gameplay and not attract with hollow promises - "oh look this game has Sean Bean it must be awesome like LotR or GoT".

Please, don't loose the game you have in mind to follow this sh*t like the dog and the actor... We want good quests, good level design, good writing (about that: the dialogue system is horrible, too big without any reason), good balance (no infinity power escalation) and finally a good combat system. I hope your game will be more like the witcher than like oblivion.

I am very excited by this game! Already spent too much on it, and yet, too little.

One point though: please do not get a few brilliant actors. I love Oblivion and Skyrim, both had famous actors. But both had too few actors so you could hear every time 'ah, this voice again' waaaay too often, which is very immersion-breaking. Invest in quantity!

But Warhorse, please do not hire 'Hollywood celebrities'! That would be a total waste of money. That's the only stretch goal I don't like. For me 'Better voiceovers' definitely means more world languages available from the start, not just English!

And there is an example of recent 'Broken Age' that also was a great success on Kickstarter - they spent a whole lot of money on 'star actors' instead of making the game more deep and long.

I have to agree with the other guys that its far better to have more great voice actors than to have one or two film related super stars. Much better ROI. Also for games in general in the long run it is much better to have more diversity. Spreading your costs on more people would mean bringing in local talent. I would rather see the money go to the Czech Republic than to the US - they have more than enough of it there :)

Sean Bean would be awesome to have his likeness and his voice acting! I really hope this has a chance to become a reality. Also can't wait for this to release on Xbox One. Have told all my friends to pitch in as the last hours draw near. Good luck Warhorse!

Superbacker

If used well, such as for an important, dramatic character, then I'm all for having a star attached to the project. Of course, those people are probably paid by the line, so the more they talk, the more expensive it tends to get...

First off - Congrats to you and your team on the success of hitting an amazing goal on your kickstarter campaign! It is amazing presentation of work. The clear visibility shared with the community on the development process is greatly appreciated.

With regards to actors..John Cleese would be great as well as other well known actors but seeing up and coming talent might fit best. I agree with a good portion of the community..the more actors the better to add the element of living world. Your work deserves nothing less ;)

Superbacker

Well if you got Sean Bean it would be a total spoiler since he dies in almost every form of media he is in. He is literally a walking death flag.

But other than that I will tend to agree that more actors is better than one or two big names. I'd love to avoid a skyrim scenario where the entire population is voiced by about ten actors. I also adore games that say screw making it all English let's go with the language that makes sense and just subtitle the voices. I vote to hire dozens of native voice actors and sub the whole game in other languages. Bonus points if you leave the signs untranslated and it subtitles them too. Or not even. Some of my favorite times is playing day z and trying to make heads or tails of the Russian letters on the sign to figure out where the hell I am. Once stood in a field for a half hour with a map and no compass with two buddies arguing about which direction a city we couldnt pronounce was.